[HISTORY: Adopted by the Village Board of the Village of
Rothschild 1-24-1983 (Sec. 3.26 of the 1967 Code); amended in its entirety 4-10-2017. Subsequent amendments noted where applicable.]
The Village Clerk is hereby designated as the legal custodian of
the Village and is vested with full legal power to render decisions
and carry out the Village's public records responsibilities pursuant
to Ch. 19, Subchapter II, Wis. Stats.
Subsection A(1) above notwithstanding, an elective official is the legal custodian of his or her records and the records of his or her office. However, an elective official may designate an employee to act as the legal custodian.
Subsection A(1) above notwithstanding, the chairperson of a committee of elective officials, or the chairperson's designee, is the legal custodian of the records of the committee. Similarly, the cochairpersons of a joint committee of elective officials, or their designees, are the legal custodians of the records of the committee.
The public may obtain information and access to records in the custody
of the clerk or other appropriate legal custodian, make requests for
records, or obtain copies of records, and learn the costs of obtaining
copies of records from the Clerk or other appropriate legal custodian
during the regular office hours of the Village.
The legal custodian may require supervision during inspection or
may impose other reasonable restrictions on the manner of access to
an original record if the record is irreplaceable or easily damaged.
The Village is not required to create a new record by extracting
information from existing records and compiling the information in
a new format, except that: any requester has a right to receive a
copy of a record which is in the form of a comprehensible audio recording
substantially as audible as the original or the Village may instead
provide a transcript of the recording to the requester if he or she
requests; any requester has a right to receive a copy of information
contained in the record assembled and reduced to written form on paper
if it is not in a readily comprehensible form; and if a record contains
information that is subject to disclosure under § 19.35(1)(a)
or (am), Wis. Stats., and information that is not subject to such
disclosure, the Village shall provide the information that is subject
to disclosure and delete the information that is not subject to disclosure
from the record before release.
The Village shall provide a requestor with facilities comparable
to those used by its employees to inspect, copy and abstract the record
during established office hours. However, the Village is not required
to purchase or lease photocopying, duplicating, photographic or other
equipment or to provide a separate room for the inspection, copying
or abstracting of records.
The Village will impose a fee upon the requester of a copy of a record
which may not exceed the actual, necessary and direct cost of reproduction
and transcription of the record, unless a fee is otherwise specifically
established or authorized to be established by law. Actual, necessary
and direct fees for public records requests shall be charged to requestors
as follows:
The Village may provide copies of a record without charge or
at a reduced charge where the legal custodian determines that waiver
or reduction of the fee is in the public interest.
Elected and appointed officials of the Village shall not be
required to pay for public records they may reasonably require for
the proper performance of their official duties.
A request is deemed sufficient if it reasonably describes the requested
record or the information requested. A request for a record without
a reasonable limitation as to subject matter or length of time represented
by the record does not constitute a sufficient request and may be
denied for those reasons. However, nothing herein this chapter shall
prevent the legal custodian from contacting the record requestor in
an attempt to better identify what the person is seeking.
Upon request for any record, a legal custodian shall as soon as practicable
and without unnecessary delay either fulfill the request or notify
the requester of the Village's determination to deny the request
in whole or in part and the reasons therefor.
A requester may be required to show acceptable identification only
when the requested record is being kept at a private residence or
whenever security reasons or federal law or regulations require it.
Otherwise, no request may be refused because the person making the
request is unwilling to be identified or to state the purpose of the
request.
A request may be made orally or in writing and need not be made in
person. If a request is made orally, the Village may deny the request
orally unless a demand for a written statement of the reasons denying
the request is made by the requester within five business days of
the oral denial. If the Village denies a written request in whole
or in part, the requester shall receive from the Village a written
statement of the reasons for denying the written request. Every written
denial of a request by the Village shall inform the requester that
if the request for the record was made in writing, then the determination
is subject to review by mandamus under § 19.37(1), Wis.
Stats., or upon application to the attorney general or a district
attorney.
No record may be destroyed after the receipt of a request for inspection
or copying of the record until after the request is granted or until
at least 60 days after the date that the request is denied or, if
the requester is a committed or incarcerated person, until at least
90 days after the date that the request is denied. Upon written notice
that an action relating to a record has been commenced under § 19.37,
Wis. Stats., the record may not be destroyed until after the order
of the court in relation to such record is issued and the deadline
for appealing that order has passed, or, if appealed, until after
the order of the court hearing the appeal is issued. If the court
orders the production of any record and the order is not appealed,
the record may not be destroyed until after the request for inspection
or copying is granted.
Although there is a presumption of access to a record, the legal
custodian must also consider whether there are any explicit rights
or prohibitions to access in statute or case law, and finally by a
balancing test weighing possible harm against benefit to the public.
If a record contains both information that may be made public and
information that may not be made public, the custodian shall provide
the information that may be made public and redact the information
that may not be made public from the record before release. The custodian
shall confer with the Village attorney prior to releasing any such
record and shall follow the guidance of the Village attorney when
separating out the exempt material. If in the judgment of the custodian
and the Village attorney there is no feasible way to separate the
exempt material from the nonexempt material without unreasonably jeopardizing
nondisclosure of the exempt material, the entire record shall be withheld
from disclosure.
A requester has a greater right of access than the general public
to any personally identifiable information pertaining to the individual
in a record containing personally identifiable information that is
maintained by the Village.
Retention of records. The Village shall keep the following records
for at least the quantified time periods set herein below and by statute
unless the state Public Records Board has adopted a shorter period
pursuant to § 16.61(3)(e), Wis. Stats., then it shall apply
instead:
Do not destroy; retain for an indefinite period: minutes of meetings;
original copies of ordinances and ordinance amendments; original copies
of resolutions; deeds and other property records; information about
plats, certified survey maps, public streets and highways; legal opinions
received from the Village attorney; information on the Village's
"Class B" liquor license quota; and insurance policies.
Pursuant to § 19.21(7), Wis. Stats., a tape recording of
a meeting for the sole purpose of making the minutes can be destroyed
no sooner than 90 days after the minutes are approved.
All materials and supplies associated with an election may be destroyed
pursuant to the schedules of § 7.23, Wis. Stats., which
is incorporated into this chapter by reference and as from time to
time amended as if fully set forth herein.
Pursuant to § 19.21(4)(a), Wis. Stats., no assessment roll
containing land enrolled in the Forest Crop Program can be destroyed
without prior approval of the state secretary of revenue.
Notice to historical society. Prior to the destruction of any public
record, at least 60 days' notice in writing shall first be given
to the State Historical Society of Wisconsin (SHSW). However, once
the Village has notified the SHSW regarding a particular record series,
and if the SHSW waives further notification of that record series
for the future, then the Village may in the future destroy further
additions to such record series without notifying SHSW.